It has been historically believed that the human foot differs substantially when comparing the feet of individuals, and that a single individual can have significant differences between their right and left feet. These differences have to date resulted in a number of possibilities when trying to classify and categorize human feet into groups in order to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of various pedal and postural conditions and diseases. Early prior art methods for classifying foot types grouped feet according to specific characteristics, such as the type of medical arch—low, normal and high, and supinated or pronated. Feet have also been typed according to toe curvature and shape into, for example, a “Greek Foot” or a “Roman Foot.” These simple classification systems continue to be used by practitioners to diagnose and treat conditions, as well as to facilitate the fabrication of shoe lasts, insoles and orthotics.
Orthotics are shoe inserts or shoe soles/beds intended to improve foot function and minimize stress forces that may cause foot deformity and pain. It is becoming increasingly common for individuals to have sport-specific footwear custom made for multidirectional sports or edge-control sports by casting the foot within the footwear, such as a ski boot, ice skate boot, biking shoes, or inline skate boot. A large variety of “comfort” shoes are also being designed in an attempt to help the growing number of people now suffering from foot, leg and back pain. Orthotics, whether insertable into footwear or integral with customized footwear, have been designed and selected to make standing, walking, running and other physical activities more comfortable and efficient by altering the angles at which the foot strikes a surface. Sometimes these orthotics and specialized shoes simply splint (immobilize) the foot's joints as a means to decrease foot pain. These common approaches, however, do not restore alignment of the foot structures (bones, joints, ligaments, etc.) to the physiologic natural condition, and therefore do not optimize foot function. The common approaches to select a so-called “customized” orthotic—including taking a mold of the subject's foot (feet), measuring the length of the individual's foot from heel to tip of the toes, sometimes in combination with a medial arch height measurement or, more recently, measuring length of the foot (from heel to tip of toes) in combination with pressure measurements while standing or transposing two dimensional photographs of a foot into a three dimensional orthotic, fail to place the foot structures in a state that optimally restores alignment of the foot structures and properly distributes pressure across the foot surface.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.